Schrödinger, Inc., 120 West 45th Street, New York, New York 10036, United States.
Department of Chemistry, Columbia University , 3000 Broadway, New York, New York 10027, United States.
Acc Chem Res. 2017 Jul 18;50(7):1625-1632. doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.7b00083. Epub 2017 Jul 5.
A principal goal of drug discovery project is to design molecules that can tightly and selectively bind to the target protein receptor. Accurate prediction of protein-ligand binding free energies is therefore of central importance in computational chemistry and computer aided drug design. Multiple recent improvements in computing power, classical force field accuracy, enhanced sampling methods, and simulation setup have enabled accurate and reliable calculations of protein-ligands binding free energies, and position free energy calculations to play a guiding role in small molecule drug discovery. In this Account, we outline the relevant methodological advances, including the REST2 (Replica Exchange with Solute Temperting) enhanced sampling, the incorporation of REST2 sampling with convential FEP (Free Energy Perturbation) through FEP/REST, the OPLS3 force field, and the advanced simulation setup that constitute our FEP+ approach, followed by the presentation of extensive comparisons with experiment, demonstrating sufficient accuracy in potency prediction (better than 1 kcal/mol) to substantially impact lead optimization campaigns. The limitations of the current FEP+ implementation and best practices in drug discovery applications are also discussed followed by the future methodology development plans to address those limitations. We then report results from a recent drug discovery project, in which several thousand FEP+ calculations were successfully deployed to simultaneously optimize potency, selectivity, and solubility, illustrating the power of the approach to solve challenging drug design problems. The capabilities of free energy calculations to accurately predict potency and selectivity have led to the advance of ongoing drug discovery projects, in challenging situations where alternative approaches would have great difficulties. The ability to effectively carry out projects evaluating tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of proposed drug candidates, is potentially transformative in enabling hard to drug targets to be attacked, and in facilitating the development of superior compounds, in various dimensions, for a wide range of targets. More effective integration of FEP+ calculations into the drug discovery process will ensure that the results are deployed in an optimal fashion for yielding the best possible compounds entering the clinic; this is where the greatest payoff is in the exploitation of computer driven design capabilities. A key conclusion from the work described is the surprisingly robust and accurate results that are attainable within the conventional classical simulation, fixed charge paradigm. No doubt there are individual cases that would benefit from a more sophisticated energy model or dynamical treatment, and properties other than protein-ligand binding energies may be more sensitive to these approximations. We conclude that an inflection point in the ability of MD simulations to impact drug discovery has now been attained, due to the confluence of hardware and software development along with the formulation of "good enough" theoretical methods and models.
药物发现项目的主要目标是设计能够与靶蛋白受体紧密且选择性结合的分子。因此,准确预测蛋白质-配体结合自由能在计算化学和计算机辅助药物设计中至关重要。计算能力、经典力场精度、增强采样方法和模拟设置的多项最新改进,使蛋白质-配体结合自由能的准确可靠计算成为可能,并使自由能计算在小分子药物发现中发挥指导作用。在本报告中,我们概述了相关的方法学进展,包括 REST2(溶剂温度置换的复制交换)增强采样、通过 FEP/REST 将 REST2 采样与常规 FEP(自由能微扰)相结合、OPLS3 力场以及构成我们 FEP+方法的先进模拟设置,然后展示了与实验的广泛比较,证明了在效力预测方面具有足够的准确性(优于 1 kcal/mol),可以极大地影响先导化合物优化项目。还讨论了当前 FEP+实现的局限性和药物发现应用中的最佳实践,以及解决这些局限性的未来方法学发展计划。然后,我们报告了最近的药物发现项目的结果,其中成功部署了数千次 FEP+计算来同时优化效力、选择性和溶解度,说明了该方法解决具有挑战性的药物设计问题的能力。自由能计算在准确预测效力和选择性方面的能力已经推动了正在进行的药物发现项目的进展,在其他方法可能存在很大困难的挑战性情况下。有效地开展评估数万甚至数十万种拟议候选药物的项目的能力,对于攻击难以成药的靶点以及促进具有各种优势的化合物的开发具有变革性,适用于广泛的靶点。更有效地将 FEP+计算集成到药物发现过程中,将确保以最佳方式部署结果,从而获得进入临床的最佳化合物;这是利用计算机驱动的设计能力获得最大回报的地方。从所描述的工作中得出的一个关键结论是,在传统的经典模拟、固定电荷范例中,可以获得惊人的稳健和准确的结果。毫无疑问,个别情况下可能会从更复杂的能量模型或动力学处理中受益,而蛋白质-配体结合能以外的性质可能对这些近似值更敏感。我们得出结论,由于硬件和软件的发展以及“足够好”的理论方法和模型的制定,MD 模拟在药物发现中的影响能力现在已经达到了一个转折点。
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